DEBUT DAGGER SHORTLIST

Debut Dagger Bulletin No. 8

The Shortlist

Thanks to everyone who took part in the 2007 CWA Debut Dagger competition. It’s been said before, but it doesn’t make it any less true: choosing the shortlist was difficult. The quality of submissions was very strong, and narrowing it down to twelve from the longlist was the most arduous task of a demanding job. Arduous because there were simply so many good entries.

To keep the judging process completely anonymous, the names of the shortlist will not be released until the beginning of June, when they will be included in a general press release for the CWA Dagger Awards. So keep a look-out on the website.

The shortlisted titles are:

Cry Baby (UK)

Maletski’s Motive (UK)

Natural Causes (UK)

Pariah (UK)

Rome was Never Like This (USA)

Solitaire (UK)

Towers of London (UK)

The Shadow of the Dead (USA)

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Canada)

White Lion (UK)

The Witch of Babylon (Canada)

With a View to Death (UK)

Congratulations and good luck to the winners and sincere commiserations to everyone else. I know that for some, just plucking up the courage to enter has been a giant step on the way to fulfilling your writing ambitions, and although those who didn’t make it onto the shortlist will inevitably be disappointed, I do hope that you gained something from the experience and will try again – it worked for Otis Twelve…

Feedback

I will send out a bulletin in the next week or so with some general comments and suggestions arising from the shortlisting process.

There will be a final bulletin in June to announce the winner